FET: Medium: Latch Ising Machines (LIM)

当今世界，在安全通信、蛋白质折叠、神经网络和医疗保健等不同领域，困难的计算（NP完全）问题比比皆是。 大类的这些困难的问题可以减少到一种形式称为伊辛问题，这是密切相关的铁磁材料的物理。 该项目团队设计了一种新的方法，可以在硬件中快速有效地解决伊辛问题，使用小型简单电路网络，特别是广泛用于各种电子设备的“静态”存储单元。 这一概念大大拓宽了对伊辛机方案及其运行机制的全面理解。 该项目正在将这种方法（称为LIM）发展到实际成果，包括对通信中的现实问题进行演示。 能够比目前实际情况更快、更准确地解决这些现实世界的问题，可以为社会带来广泛的利益。该项目的活动包括关注来自传统弱势背景的学生，以及传播和互动研讨会。更确切地说，该团队正在展示伊辛机，以前使用量子/光学方案以及振荡器网络实现，也可以使用双稳态元件实现，例如基于CMOS的锁存器。 与以前的伊辛机方法不同，这些方法体积大，价格昂贵，不适合低成本的大规模生产，所提出的方法是一个纯粹的经典方案，不依赖于量子现象或新型纳米器件。 使用常规CMOS电子器件具有许多优点：可缩放性/可扩展性（即，在一个物理上很小的系统中有非常大数量的自旋），完善的设计过程和工具，基本上保证了硬件的首次工作，非常低的功耗操作，与控制和I/O逻辑的无缝集成，通过标准接口（如USB）的易于编程性，以及低成本的大规模生产。另一个关键的潜在优势来自LIM的连续/模拟特性（与纯数字算法相比）。 研究人员在理论和计算上开发LIM，在硬件上实现它，并在基准伊辛问题以及伊辛形式的困难通信相关问题上演示它。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Difficult computational (NP-complete) problems abound in today’s world, in areas as diverse as secure communications, protein folding, neural networks and healthcare. Large classes of these hard problems can be reduced to a form known as the Ising problem, which is closely related to the physics of ferromagnetic materials. The project team has devised a novel way of solving the Ising problem quickly and effectively in hardware, using networks of small, simple circuits, specifically, ``static'' memory cells, widely used in electronic devices of every kind. The concept significantly broadens the overall understanding of Ising machine schemes and their operational mechanisms. This project is developing this method (termed LIM) to practical fruition, including demonstration on real-world problems from communications. Being able to solve such real-world problems much more quickly and accurately than is currently practical can lead to broad benefits to society. The project's activities include a focus on students from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as workshops for dissemination and interaction.More precisely, the team is showing that Ising machines, which have previously been realized using quantum/optical schemes as well as oscillator networks, can also be implemented using bi-stable elements such as CMOS-based latches. Unlike previous Ising machine approaches, which are large, expensive and ill-suited to low-cost mass production, the proposed approach is a purely classical scheme that does not rely on quantum phenomena or novel nano-devices. Using conventional CMOS electronics has many advantages: scalability/miniaturizability (i.e., very large numbers of spins in a physically small system), well-established design processes and tools that essentially guarantee first-time working hardware, very low power operation, seamless integration with control and I/O logic, easy programmability via standard interfaces like USB, and low cost mass production. Another key potential advantage stems from the continuous/analog nature of LIM (as contrasted with purely digital algorithms). The researchers are developing LIM theoretically and computationally, implementing it in hardware, and demonstrating it on benchmark Ising problems as well as Ising forms of difficult communications-related problems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.